Sorting case



April 26 1927- 5, B. TULLO S son'rma CASE Filed Oct. 5, 1922 v.uZtto'rn/vy- Patented Apr. 26, 19.27.

1,526,1Zli I STUART B. TULLOSS, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

sonrrive CASE.

Application filed October 5, 1922. Serial ,No. 592,588.

My invention-relates to sorting cases or files, and more particularly toa device for sorting slips such as bank checks or the like. r

e The object of the invention is to provide a simple, compact andreadily operated derice for sorting slips such as bank checks that havebeen received or collected out of order as to serial number or otherindividual identifying marks. v

A particular object of the invention is to prov de a device of the abovequalifications especially ada Jted for use where the checks are to besorted according to an individual serial number and where a large numberof checks is to be sorted in a batch in which the serial numbers differby a thousand or less.

In the handling of great numbers of checks as in the filing of checkspaid by the Government or large corporations, it is found that of eachthousand checks received for filing, about 9 per cent have serialnumbers which are within the same thousands group, that is, differ byless than a thousand units. This makes it most economical to sort themin batches containing all those of a common thousands group amounting toapproximately a thousand or about 950 checks to the batch.

The present practice, in sorting by hand, is to make a preliminarysorting of the checks into batches containing all those belonging to acommon thousands group, each of which batches, approximating950'checlrs, is then arranged in serial order by three sortingoperations. First, they are thrown in hundreds groups which necessitateshandling the whole batch of checks to sort those differing by onehundred and which first throwing would result in ten groups of hundreds;secondly, each group of hundreds is thrown in tens groups, and thirdly,each tens group is thrown in units. Thus, the whole batch of nearly athousand checks must be handled three times.

.Vith applicants device, the batch of approximately one thousand'checlrsresulting from the preliminary sorting, and containing, for example,checks whose serial numbers range from 2.67400!) to 2,674,999. may bearranged directly in se 'ial order with but one handling of the checks.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is an orthographic projection of my device, on a reduced scale; 1

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary projection, approximately actual size, of thetop front portion;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary detail view, on the scale of F l, of the firstleaf in a group of fifty;

Fig. 4- is a similar view of a leaf near the middle of a fifty group;

Fig. 5 is a similar view of the last leaf in a fifty group;

6 is a fragmentary (retail section through the lower portion of thecards show ing the spacing strips;

Fig. 7 is a transverse section through the lower right hand side of thedevice;

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary View, in projection and substantia ly actualsize, of a modified form of my device.

Referring to the drawings in detail, the base portion 1 is a tray-likestructure comprising a bottom member 2, side members 3 and 4, and endmembers 5 and In this base are vertically set a thousand and onepartition leaves or cards 7 alternating with a thousand spacing strips8. The spacing strips 8 run substantially the length of the cards andextend substantially as high as the sides 3 and i. The whole series ofpartitionleaves and spacing strips are tightly bound together within.the base by means of the end members 5 and 6 which are arranged to bedrawn up to the ends of the side niembers'by the bolts 9 to exert aclamping action on the leaves and strips. The bolts 9 operate bythreading into nuts 10 nested in the side members. The purpose of thistight clamping or bin ing is not only to hold the leaves and strips inthe base but to hold the leaves '7 strips 8 in contact throughout theirjuxta nosed surfaces, regardless of whether-"or not the leaves are bentor flexed away fromeach other as in dicated in 6. Thus each strip 8 ismade to form the bottom wall of a compartment whose side walls may heflexed or bent away from each other without separating from the bottomwall. To further guard against outward displacement of the leaves andstrips, I pr vide an inwarlly projecting locking bead 11 on each sidemember 3 and l, as indicated in section in Fig. '7, which engages withnotches 12 in the strips and leaves.

It will be seen that the structure just described forms a group of onethousand check compartments in a very compact and sturdy unit. Thesecompartments are numbered serially by numbering the partition leaves, inthe present instance, 000 to 999, and to aid in quickly finding andopening up a. particular compartment to enable a check to be placedtherein, I provide a novel arrangement of indexing and operating meanswhich will now be described.

The front partition leaf 7 is simply a cover or front leaf for the firstcompartment, while the remaining one thousand partition leaves 7 areprovided with raised index portions or tabs 18 numbered 000 to 999 fromthe front rearwardly. The leaves are divided into twenty groups offifty, the first leaf in each group having an index tab on the extremeleft such as the tabs numbered 000, 050, etc., as indicated in Figs. 1,2 and 3. The index tabs of the remaining forty-nine leaves in each groupof fifty are spaced progressively to the ex treme right hand end adistance of one digit so as to show the units digit, excepting the firstleaf in each group of ten, after the first leaf of a fifty group, whichhave their index tabs 14, numbered 010, 070, 180, etc., raised clearabove the others and spaced just sufliciently to the right of theoverlapping tab to show a distinct break, preferably of contrastingcolor, at the beginning of a ten group.

All the index tabs 13 are of the same height and in order to make themclearly visible from the front of the device Without depriving them ofthe support afforded by the leaves back of them, I so shape the upperedges of the leaves that they form elements of a plane extending fromthe upper edges of a row of tabs 13 in one fifty group to the bottoms ofthe tabs of the next succeeding fifty group, as clearly shown in Fig. 2where it will be seen that the top surface of the mass of leaves isnotched. For obvious reasons, the tops of the leaves in the first fiftygroup extend horizontally along the base line of the tabs so that theplane 1.5 formed by this group is horizontal.

To effect this formation of the surface of the mass of leaves, I formthe upper edges, as shown in Figs. 3, 4t and 5, with a slant upwardlyfrom the right hand side of the tab and downwardly from the left handside of the tab, the height of the corners of the leaves varyingaccording to their positions in the group.

It will be noted that the tabs 1-1 form "four columns of whole serialnumbers which are clearly distinguishable from the other numbers andtabs 13 by their extra height and contrasting color. The purpose of thisis to enable the operator to readily find the beginning of any group often. To

clearly mark off the beginning of each fifty group, I make the firstleaf and tab, 050, 100, etc., of a contrasting color different from thefirst leaves of the tens group other than those beginning with fiftiesand hundreds.

A modified form of my invention consists in making the leaves 7 oftransparent material with the serial numbers below the edges of theleaves in the same order as that of Figs 1 and 2, as indicated in Fig.8. The top edges of the leaves thus form a plane surface as shown, onwhich are marked numbers as at 16 and 17 indicating,respectively, thefifty-groups and tens-groups. To further set out the columns oftens-groups I mark a line 18 of a distinctive color across the top edgesofth'e leaves between the tens-groups over the last digits (the ciphers)of the number of the leaves beginning a tens-group. To make the leavesbeginning a fifty-group more readily distinguishable, I make suchleaves, those numbered 050, 100, 150, etc., of a distinctive color sothat the top edge of each will present a line 19 of a distinctive colormarking the beginning of a fiftygroup.

In operation, with the preferred form as shown in Figs. 1 to 7, theoperator simply picks up a check, the serial number of which is noted toend in say 185, glances up the tens column containing the SOs, whichfrom experience he knows to be the third, and places the thumb of hisright hand against the first 5 tab to the right of the 180 tab in thethird column. As this 5 tab is on the leaf numbered 185 forming the rearpartition of the compartment for the check whose serial number ends in185, the leaf is pushed back, opening up the compartment sufficient toenable the check to be dropped therein. While this is the modeof'operation which is thought to be the most efficient, being the onewhich an operator soon adopts after some experience, other modes ofoperation may be practiced according to the choice of the operator. Anobvious method that might appeal to a beginner in placing the checknumbered 185 would be to first glance up the column of fifty-groups tothe high est fifty-group which would be 150 and.

glance along the tens tabs to the right, past and on to and from thenceto the next tab numbered 5.

The operation of the modified form shown in Fig. 8 is substantially thesame as that just described except that in finding a compartment, saynumber 060, the operator places his thumb at approximately theintersection of the lines of ciphers 18 and the beginning of the secondfifty-group, pushing back the leaves and permitting a few to slipforward until the one numbered 060 appears;

While I have thus illustrated and described certain specific embodimentsof my invention for the sake of disclosure, it is to be understood thatI do not limit myself thereto, but contemplate all such modifica' tionsand variants thereof as fall fairly within the scope of the appendedclaims.

hat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A sorting case comprising a base member having sides and movable endmembers forming a tray partition leaves and spacing strips arrangedalternately in said base or tray extending from side to side andextending as a pack of leaves from end to end of the tray, and means forclamping the said movable end members against the ends of the pack tobind said leaves and strips together.

2. A sorting case comprising a series of partition leaves having indextabs bearing index numbers individual to the leaves raised above the topedges of several leaves immediately in front and positionedprogressively from left to right on successive leaves from front to backand extending laterally of each other an amount only sufficient to showa portion of the number near the units end whereby the exposed tab areais reduced to less than the sum oi. the areas occupied by the wholeindex numbers.

3. A sorting case comprising a series of partition leaves having thumbtabs raised above the top edges of several leaves immediately in frontand positioned progressively from left to right on successive leavesfrom front to back in a plurality of groups of leaves to form aplurality of rows of tabs extending from left to right and spaced from:t'ront to back, the top edges of the leaves of a group being shaped toform a plane extending from the top line of a given row of tabs to thebase of the succeeding row of tabs.

&. A leaf or card index comprising a series of cards having tabsextending upwardly from the top edges oi the cards and positionedprogressively from left to right and from front to back, each bearing agroup of characters and extending sufiiciently to the right of the onein front to show the last character only of the said group ofcharacters, certain of said tabs being raised sufficiently above thelevel oi? the other tabs to show the whole group of characters.

5. A leaf or card index comprising a series or cards having tabsextending upwardly from the top etges ot' the cards and positionedprogressively from left to right and from front to back to form aplurality of diagonal rows of index tabs each tab being backed by abackwardly and downwardly extending buttress formed of the upperportions of the cards between it and the next succeeding row of tabs.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

STUART B. TULLOSS.

